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Computing

Campus computing resources

bConnected has links to many campus services, including email, calendar, file storage, and wireless access. Eduroam is the preferred wireless network, as it has the same connectivity as AirBears2 and has the potential to work at other institutions worldwide. Eduroam and AirBears2 require an access key. CalVisitor is convenient for guest access since no key or password is required; it has a more restricted level of service than Eduroam and AirBears2.

About CalNet passphrases and access keys

Your CalNet identity is used to authenticate and authorize your use of many campus web applications and services--notably, bMail's webmail interface. Normally you provide your CalNet identity and passphrase in a web portal when accessing these services. However, some applications and services cannot capture access through a web portal, and these require an access key instead of the usual CalNet passphrase. Such services include AirBears2/Eduroam and bMail when accessed through a mail client (Thunderbird, or the Mail client on a mobile device). Go to bConnected to manage your access key if you use one of these services.

Data Security

A few suggestions on how to keep your data secure.

Passphrases:

Diceware is a good way to generate secure passwords that are relatively easy to remember. A six- or seven-word passphrase is plenty for securing encrypted files. Skip the discussion on that page if you want and go directly to the steps outlined in the 'Using Diceware' section.

It is usually better to write down a strong passphrase and keep it in a physically secure location than to use a weak passphrase.

Encrypting files

Q. Why encrypt?

A. It's the only way to secure any sensitive data stored on your computer. Your user password offers essentially no protection if someone gets physical access to your computer—if it's lost or stolen, for instance. Also, you need encryption to protect your data when sending over an unsecure network (the Internet) or when putting your data in the hands of a third party, like an online backup service or dropbox.

Truecrypt is a cross-platform, open source program for creating mountable encryption containers where you can store files containing sensitive data.

Recommended way to use truecrypt:

In truecrypt preferences, *unselect* 'Preserve modification timestamp of file containers' setting. If you don't change this setting from the truecrypt default, your backup software might not automatically back up your container when the contents change.

Keep your encrypted containers in a single location (e.g. Documents\encrypted). Doing this makes it easy to make sure your encrypted containers will be backed up by your backup software.

Unmount encrypted filesystem whenever you are not in physical control of your computer. You can relax this restriction if you set your computer to automatically require your (strong) password when waking up from sleep or returning from the screensaver.

When backing up your computer, back up the encrypted containers, not the unencrypted mount.

Protect unencrypted copies of your sensitive data that the operating system or applications might make when you are working with files containing sensitive data. These temporary copies may exist in volatile memory or on disk.

Encrypt your entire home folder.

Encrypt your email.

Encrypt your web browsing.

Pros:

You can securely share files with most colleagues, regardless of their platform, using standard tools like email, sftp, dropbox, etc. All you have to do is put the files in an encrypted container and send the container.

Encrypted containers can be securely backed up to third-party services.